What are you?

Matthew 13:1-9 – The Parable of the Sower and the Seed

What are you? At your core, do you know where you are sown?

Are you devoured, com­pletely enclosed in the belly of some beast? In the grip of some worldly pas­sion, an art, a sport, or a busi­ness? Pas­sion­ately engaged in a good cause, like envi­ron­mental con­ser­va­tion or social activism? None of these are wrong. Yet this world is passing away ›› 1 John 2:17, and we are reminded not to con­sider any of the things of this world per­ma­nent or ulti­mate ›› 1 Cor 7:31. Your state, what­ever it is, is tem­po­rary, be it like Noah in the belly of the whale. Live pas­sion­ately by all means, but not without proper knowl­edge ›› Prov 19:2, Romans 10:2. Oth­er­wise you may end up standing before your Cre­ator arguing “but i did X and Y and was so pas­sionate and achieved this and that…” – and He may reply some­thing like “but I had made you for Z, and you missed it, because you never asked.”

Are you on shallow ground, between a rock and a hard place, wedged into a flinty crag? Enthu­si­astic about every­thing new but not fol­lowing through, not holding on when the storms come? This parable can be mis­un­der­stood fatal­is­ti­cally: “oh well, if i’m a seed thrown onto rock, i cannot help it that i do not bear fruit, i am just thrown into life, i cannot choose to be planted in good soil…” — this is a good illus­tra­tion of the mys­tery of des­tiny and free will. From our Creator’s per­spec­tive, the seeds are all cast and He knows who is on what ground. Yet for us, while expe­ri­encing pro­gres­sive time, our fate is not sealed. You may be sown onto rock, and tossed around by the winds, here and there. Yet exactly this may lead to you even­tu­ally flying onto fer­tile soil! Make your­self light and get ready to fly to a life far better than you ask or imagine ›› Eph 3:20.

Are you among thorns? It helps to iden­tify these: what is growing over your head, is it work? finances? family? pol­i­tics? des­per­a­tion about the state of this world with all its injus­tices? And then, what do you do? My temp­ta­tion is often just to despair into my inca­pa­bility. Yet our Cre­ator is a mer­ciful Lord, if we sense that things are growing over our heads, we can ask to be trans­planted into good soil. This will mean uprooting.

Are you on good soil? Con­grat­u­la­tions, enjoy it, bear fruit and stay humble, real­ising that you are a blessing to others and that you are lucky, having earth, nutri­ents, water and light, and it is your priv­i­lege to make the most of it.

Again, this is not a fate parable. Most of us will be on dif­ferent ground at dif­ferent times or our lives. I hear the nag­ging sug­ges­tions by the adver­sary every day: “you’re irrel­e­vant. you’re get­ting old, things are con­gealing and won’t change any­more. just give up and pale into indif­fer­ence…” and such like. It is impor­tant to resist these thoughts. Nobody is a hope­less case.

What cat­e­gory do you see your­self in most? Keep in mind, at any given time you can really only be in one group:

The thorns won’t grow well on rocky ground either. and you’re not taking deep root, able to get blown or dropped onto better soil.

If you’re devoured, you’re lifted off what­ever soil you were on, are in tran­si­tion and will be deposited else­where, maybe on good ground! Many tree species rely on birds or mam­mals to dis­perse their seed. Some seeds even ger­mi­nate better after they’ve been digested. Your worldly pas­sions can take you places, shape your appear­ance, mold you into shapes, but they can also quickly drop you, once you’re too old for this sport, not good enough for that role, failing in your endeav­ours, or suc­ceeding – George Bernard Shaw wrote: “There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.” and Oscar Wilde wrote some­thing sim­ilar. The ques­tions “so now what?” “is this all life is?” will appear.

Among the thorns, at least you have some soil and are pro­tected from ani­mals. The thorns chal­lenge you to exceed them, dri­ving you upwards. Maybe the pur­pose of the thorns is for you to call on the Lord and rely on Hers strength
›› 1 Peter 5:7, Phil 4:13, James 1:2-4 and James 1:12.
Under thorns is the state i most often see myself in. I jus­tify myself: i need to make a living after all, be there for the people around me, meet expec­ta­tions… and before i know the day is over and i haven’t asked my Cre­ator for direc­tion or guid­ance by His Holy Spirit.

Whilst we are breathing and day is called “today” (Heb 3:13), there is hope for change and fruit. This world is coming to an end, and dra­matic change is ahead. So don’t settle too much into this tem­po­rary habi­ta­tion ›› Heb 13:14. Let’s pre­pare and take courage. Our Cre­ator knows what S/he is doing.